Tuesday, February 24, 2015

I registered an event with BlogAdda for the 'Make an Axis Acquaintance' program. It was an attempt by Axis Bank to make us familiar with Axis Mobile Application. While my objective was just to get some
insights in to mobile application from Axis bank, my experience in the event was completely
unexpectedly awesome.

Before the event could start we had some sandwich and
coffee. Later on, we joined the conference when all the participants came in.

We were seated in Axis bank corporate high-tech conference
room. Promod Mulani (Head of digital and mobile banking) gave us a live account demo using his iPhone. While I was
excited about first tech event from Blogadda, the Axis team was equally excited
to give us the presentation. The demo was not a powerpoint presentation but a live account
transaction demo displayed on our personal screens.

Security in-place
Demo started with security features and one minute mobile on
boarding of the new user. Security is of utmost importance in today’s world and
it has been well taken care by Axis Bank. This important aspect of the mobile
app impressed me since it is tagged to ones registered number with Axis Bank. While keeping security aspect in mind, the
time taken for on boarding in mobile was quick. This really helps the customer since
I personally had faced an issue an year back with mobile app and left it half way
and uninstalled it.

Minimal clicks required

Usability or the user experience is the area where in lots
of research and efforts have been put by Axis bank. One example is the customers
are shown the account balance upfront on login. It has been taken care that the
customer uses minimal clicks to do any transaction.

Schedule Later

I always forget to pay credit card bill so I usually pay
when I receive the bill which defeats the purpose of keeping a credit card and
getting a 50 days credit. Axis mobile App provides a pay later i.e. schedule
later button in which I can schedule on the day I receive the statement. I even
have the option to make part payment. This feature is something that is most
thought off to get into customers mindset.

Money Transfer made easy

Adding beneficiary name from axis account is just like
syncing your Facebook account to mobile contacts. It’s as simple as adding a
contact number. If we want to transfer money to a person having axis bank
account, we just have to add his mobile number and the app would retrieve all
other information. And money can be transferred instantly after adding
beneficiary name instantly using IMPS like in other bank accounts which takes
12 hrs for activation. This also brings in doubt on security issue but it has
been well taken care off.

For transferring to other bank account we would require the
account number of the beneficiary. Beneficiary account holder picture can be
clicked and cropped and added instantly. This adds to the security when
transferring to some other person as
well adds to the emotional value. From usability perspective adding a picture
quickens our transfer process while transferring to the same account again. We have
experienced this in Gmail where in it shows the picture of the person to whom we are
transferring. Subconsciously our mind does not read the name but sees the
pictures. A very well thought user experience at the right place.

Switch off your debit card instantly

You even have option of Switching off the debit card. This
is a cool feature which I had never heard off. Usually there is process in
other banks to deactivate the card temporarily. Usually we have to call the
call center and go through some verification process to deactivate the card. But this App
gives us the feature at our finger tips.

Reward points redemption

Redemption of reward points is now a child’s play in Axis
mobile app. The royalty program gives points on various transactions. All the
points collected can then be redeemed on application itself. The coupon is delivered
instantly in the inbox without any delivery charges which other bank charges for
delivering the coupons after 20 days.

Some more...

The mobile application also provides any loan details which we have with
axis. So we do not have to worry to search any details. It’s all again in the application.

The Google map gives details on nearest hotels with
discounts that axis bank offers. A add-on feature where in we can decide on the restaurants
while on the go.

Apart from above there are lots more. I have mentioned few
of the discussed features. It’s really a application that gets bank in our pocket.

The whole idea of the application is to give customer an enriching
experience and not just a way to transact in the bank. It has eased the customer’s
pain of going to the bank in a world where everyone has an excuse “time nahi
hai”.

After a knowledge sharing and an interactive session on the
Axis mobile app we went for a lunch. Lunch was refreshing and had some good time
chatting with the other bloggers.